MEPs have been subject to intense lobbying ahead of today’s (18 March) discussion on the so-called third generation cooperation agreement with Islamabad

at the assembly’s foreign affairs committee.

But while both the Commission and the Council of Ministers are in favour of ratifying the accord, the deputy charged with drafting the Parliament’s position is declining to give his assent.

Irish deputy John Cushnahan said he is “astonished” that pressure on MEPs to approve the deal has increased in recent months. This is despite the confession by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the reputed father of the ‘Islamic bomb’, that he had sold nuclear materials from Pakistan to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Signed by Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, European Commission chief Romano Prodi and Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt in late 2001, the accord is designed to boost trade with and aid to the vast country, as well as facilitating the return of Pakistani immigrants living in Europe.

Cushnahan, a member of the European People’s Party, says the accord is premised on respect for human rights and democracy and that serious electoral flaws in Pakistan mean it fails to uphold such principles: “There’s not much point in putting human rights and democracy clauses in cooperation agreements, if we’re not prepared to enforce them,” he argued. “What annoys me even more is that we are prepared to take the high moral ground on these issues when dealing with small countries. But where you have a large country, with important geopolitical or trading issues at stake, there has been a surrender of principles on too many occasions.”